


And then there were none

by kiki_92



Category: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Violence, Character Death, Chimera Virus, Gen, Infected Characters, Mission Fic, Siege-O-Ween, Siege-o-ween 2020, Thriller, rescue gone wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27206674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiki_92/pseuds/kiki_92
Summary: “The US Department of Homeland Security requested Rainbow specifically to perform the rescue, since they were impressed with how we managed the New Mexico crisis.”A sea rescue takes a horrifying turn when the team discovers why the ship went dark.
Relationships: Lera "Finka" Melnikova & Meghan "Valkyrie" Castellano
Comments: 7
Kudos: 19





	And then there were none

**Author's Note:**

> This story was also my contribution to the [Dualrainbow's](https://dualrainbow.tumblr.com/) event, [Siege-O-Ween](https://dualrainbow.tumblr.com/post/631197769862987776/siege-o-ween-hello-everybody-the-spookiest-month)!
> 
> The prompt is: _“He’s gonna get you! He’s gonna get you!!”_  
>  _________________________________________
> 
> Please pay attention to the tags, this is a total departure from what I usually write so go into it knowing what you will encounter!  
> And a big thank you to [Grain_Crain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grain_Crain/pseuds/Grain_Crain/works) & [ToDragons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToDragons/pseuds/ToDragons/works) for beta reading the story <3

From afar, the ship looked impossibly small, like a toy floating in the middle of the sea. Such an innocent image to describe the powderkeg they were about to get dropped into. Finka drummed her fingers against her thigh, making a satisfying thump against the hard surface of her gear. She wasn’t the only one fidgeting. On the copilot seat, Buck fiddled with the burnished scorpion charm dangling from his backpack. A gift from Jackal, one he claimed was supposed to bring good luck. Finka couldn’t see why a dangerous critter would be good luck, but maybe she was just in a dark mood at the moment.

Sea rescues and dealing with biological and chemical threats were things Rainbow had done before, on multiple occasions. However, this didn’t feel like a normal operation to Finka, Harry’s words playing again and again on her mind like a broken record. 

At first, Finka had been eager to know the details of their new mission, the opportunity to go out there and actually make a difference was always alluring. She had no experience with maritime rescue, but that was why Valkyrie and Wamai were part of the team. It was Finka’s own presence that seemed out of place, since both her and Lion were only called to deal with chemical and biological threats. 

“The US Department of Homeland Security requested Rainbow specifically to perform the rescue, since they were impressed with how we managed the New Mexico crisis.”

It struck her as odd the New Mexico incident would be brought up, and both she and Buck, the only veterans from Truth or Consequences present, shared a worried look. Harry seemed oblivious to their concern, and droned on about team composition, indicating Doc was otherwise occupied at the moment, and would only join them for the exfil. Finka would feel better if Doc was on the team too, if there were people who needed medical attention on the ship, she was not an adequate substitute; Finka was a scientist, not a doctor. The distress message that had prompted this rescue operation bubbled up in her mind once more.

She looked at the ship again, this time looking bigger than moments ago, and Finka tried to see if there was any sign of what they would find inside. They were still too far to see any details of the deck, but it looked deserted.

“Okay guys, we’ll get there in five,” Jäger announced, sounding way too cheery to not be faked.

Finka observed the rest of the team. Aside from the team captain, Buck, Harry chose Wamai and Valkyrie, for their experience with sea rescue missions; and Pulse, since he often collaborated with the CBRN unit. The only person she wasn’t very familiar with was Wamai, being a more or less recent addition to Rainbow;, Finka had never trained with him before. Although, according to what Valkyrie told her, he was weird but extremely competent.

Once they arrived at their destination, they rappelled down to the ship’s deck. It was as empty as Finka had thought it would be, and the only noise she could hear was the helicopter still hovering over the ship and her own heartbeat thumping in her ear. The ruckus didn’t seem to attract attention, and that was odd. That amount of noise should have made someone come to investigate, shouldn’t it?

“Everyone stay alert,” Finka instructed. “We don’t know what we’ll find.”

Buck signalled at Jäger to get on the move, and turned around to address the team. “Stay alert at all times, and be ready for anything. Let’s get moving.”

The stillness and silence put Finka more on edge than if they had found infected people roaming around. No matter where she looked, it seemed like they were on a ghost ship, devoid of life except for them. The next problem they encountered was finding a way to get inside. No matter how much they all tried to open the door, it wouldn’t budge. In fact, it seemed like someone jammed it from the inside.

“Can you use your skeleton key?” Pulse asked, using his cardiac sensor to see if there was anyone behind the door or nearby. Nothing appeared on the screen except for them.

“I think you’re mistaking me for someone else,” Buck pointed out drily. “First of all, I didn’t bring it; and second, you’re welcome to see if a shotgun would do anything on the metal.”

Finka frowned at the reminder of how lightly armed they were, but since a terrorist attack had been discarded, and the rifles were cumbersome for rescuing people, they went only with their pistols. After all, this was supposed to be a routine rescue mission.

“Didn’t we bring breach charges?” Pulse pressed on. He was spending too much time around hard breachers, that was sure.

“It wouldn’t work on metal either,” Finka explained. “Unless you brought one of Thermite’s charges.”

Judging by Pulse’s disappointed face, he did not. The team stayed in silence for a moment, quietly thinking about their options. Without a way in, the mission was doomed before it even started.

“Let’s go up a few levels. Observation and control are over there,” Valkyrie said, gesturing vaguely to the right.

In truth they didn’t have much choice, since this entry was blocked and the only person with extensive knowledge of battleships was Valkyrie, her idea was worth a shot. The metal stairs leading to the upper floor were slippery from the waves’ mist, Finka supposed, creaking under their boots while the team silently made their way up.

The scenery in this new deck was exactly the same as before, with no signs of human presence anywhere. There was another door that was also locked. Valkyrie proposed another route, but Pulse argued it would be probably blocked too, and they should find an alternative way of entering that didn’t involve knocking at any door. Finka sided with him, while Buck leant towards Valkyrie’s solution. The argument was at a stalemate when Wamai stepped forward.

“We are wasting time.” He pointed to a glass panel that was missing, sort of like a small window. A person could go through, but it would be a tight fit if one could easily reach up there, since it was almost at ceiling level. Looking at Pulse, Wamai said, “Hoist me up and I’ll unlock the door from the other side.”

The whole group watched with bated breath how Wamai shimmied into the small window, sliding as if he was a slippery eel. There was a moment when Finka was sure he was stuck, but soon Wamai disappeared inside the closed room, looking far more graceful than most people would have managed when landing face first into the ground. A few moments later the metal door groaned and swung open. Wamai held a huge spanner in his hands, and confirmed this was used to jam the door.

This room looked as undisturbed as the rest of the ship, one could almost think it was a ship turned into a museum, pristine and frozen in time. There were rows of buttons and displays that Finka had no idea what they were for, and empty chairs. One curious detail she noticed was the lack of power, at least for the lights. If it wasn’t from the sunlight streaming in from the windows, the room would have been completely in the dark.

On the corner of the room, there was yet another door, presumably leading inside the ship. This one wasn’t barred, thankfully. 

The corridor behind the door was pitch black. Finka turned on her flashlight, revealing yet another staircase, this one going down, and a bifurcation in the corridor further ahead. 

“We should go to the command center, or communications, or some place we can find what the hell is going on.” Buck looked at Valkyrie for guidance.

“If it’s like the ships I served on, communications should be ahead.”

“Will anything work, though? It seems like the power is down.” Finka usually abstained from pointing out the obvious, but in this case it was necessary, since no one else thought about that.

“No, we should turn on the emergency generators first,” Valkyrie agreed with her. “Or restart the main ones if we can.”

Buck asked her to lead the way, and they finally stepped into the dark corridor. The first thing Finka noticed was how stale the air felt, as if the ship had been locked for a long time. A lone emergency light flickered lethargically further down the corridor, creating faint shadows on the walls. It reminded Finka of that one time lightning struck Rainbow’s base and the power went off. She had been at the gym, working out with Valkyrie, when everything went dark except for the sporadic emergency light. 

However, instead of operators groaning at the lack of electricity, and bickering about who would fix it, now there was only a heavy silence draping itself over every corner of this damned ship. It was smothering, heightening the tense atmosphere that had taken over them, even if literally nothing happened since they stepped onto the ship.

After going down at least two levels, they came up to what looked like a sealed corridor and a decontamination area. The flashlights’ beams swiped over the plastic curtains repeatedly, but it was impossible to tell what was behind them. Finka looked around, trying to memorize how to get here, since she wanted to explore that area. With luck she would find some clues or even reports of what went wrong. Once she knew what they were up against, she would feel marginally better, more in control of the situation. 

After walking for another five minutes, Buck asked, “Do you detect anything, Pulse?” 

“Yeah, four signals around me,” Pulse swept his heartbeat detector in the group's direction, garnering an eye roll from everyone except Wamai. “But aside from us, nope, nothing.”

The room where Valkyrie led them to was huge, so they dispersed to find the generators. Finka could hear her teammates making faint noises, mainly from their boots stomping on the metal floor. Then she heard a groan. 

Finka swiped her flashlight to the left, and there it was, a person braced against the wall, hunched and making pitiful noises like an injured animal. The stranger seemed to be a man in a white scientist coat. 

“I found someone, they seem disoriented,” Finka said through the comms, then spoke to the man in a soothing tone. “We're here to help.What’s the problem, what happened?” 

Upon hearing her voice, he turned around towards Finka, only to hiss and shield his face from the small beam of light. Her team must have found the generators, because the lights came back on at full force, making her blink until her eyes adjusted to the new levels of brightness. The man howled, a horrible guttural noise that made her hair stand on end, then he pushed her down. 

It was so sudden Finka didn't have time to react, one moment she was radioing her team to inform the guy was acting weird, and the next second he charged against her like an enraged bull. She couldn't breathe, the impact knocking the air out of her, and the pressure on her throat was unbearable. He was strangling her, she realized while black spots appeared on her vision. 

She tried to shake him off, but to no avail. Blood rushed in her ears and Finka had the horrible realization he was going to kill her, and the last thing she would see would be his lacerated face. Fucking hell, it looked like the skin was blackening and shriveling in front of her eyes. 

A couple of blurry figures rushed to her side and suddenlyFinka could breathe again. She took a shuddering gulp of air while Buck and Wamai stood by her side making sure she wasn't injured, and her hands drifted by instinct to her adrenal surge injector. The effects kicked in and at once she was on her feet and ready to act. Pulse and Valkyrie had knocked the man away from her, but he was able to shake both of them off of him.

The man stood there, twitching uncontrollably as spikes grew from his shoulders. The sound of piercing flesh and skin and the horrible smell of dark blood oozing out of the wounds filled the corridor. Dread weighed down Finka, because she had seen this before. 

“What the fuck!” Pulse, was rooted to the spot, looking in morbid fascination. 

The infected man moved as if he was going to lunge at her again, and promptly stumbled backwards when Buck fired his pistol. Blood splashed, droplets landing everywhere, yet the wound didn't stop him. The former human screeched, raising hands like claws and trying to attack again, until a well placed headshot made him drop on the floor like a broken doll.

Everyone turned to look at Wamai, who looked remarkably calm while still holding his revolver. “Removing threats is always a priority.”

Finka couldn't agree more. She thanked him, her voice raspy after being choked almost to death, and Valkyrie ran to her, checking if Finka was otherwise uninjured. Grateful as she was for her friend’s concern and fussing, there was a more pressing matter worrying Finka.

“It looked like…” Buck trailed off, troubled by the implications, and Finka nodded vigorously because she knew what he meant. “Great, it will be like in the old times, can’t say I missed it.”

“Does this change our mission in any way?” Wamai asked.

In the end, it was decided it didn’t. They still needed to find what the hell happened here, find the survivors if there were any, and wait for extraction. It was a simple plan, but that was good. In Finka’s experience, simple worked much better, less opportunities to mess up a vital step if there weren’t many of those.

_ _

A disagreement arose regarding where they should go first. Valkyrie wanted to go to the control center, check the security cameras to know what was waiting for them around the ship. Both Buck and Pulse wanted to prioritize finding survivors, and Finka wanted to investigate the sealed off corridor they saw earlier. If that had been a quarantined area, it stood to reason there would be some sort of record of what happened. As a specialist in containing and fighting biological threats, that kind of intel was vital for her task.

“Why don’t we split?” Eventually suggested Valkyrie.

Nobody was very happy with the idea, but it made sense. During any operation, the team didn’t always stick together, not even in New Mexico. Even then, someone would go explore further away, or dally then have to catch up to the rest of the team. Therefore, despite Buck’s distaste for the idea, he agreed it was the best choice. Valkyrie would go to the control center, since she was the only one with an idea of where that might be, Buck and Pulse would look for survivors, and Finka and Wamai were to explore that sealed corridor she had pointed out. It didn’t sit well with Finka that Valkyrie would be on her own, while everyone else was partnered, but her task sounded the less risky of all, so of course Valkyrie insisted she would be fine. 

“Be ready for anything, and if something unexpected happens: a weird sound, a shadow moving, a light going off, whatever it is, get to safety and contact the rest of the team.” Buck instructed, getting a nod from everyone. 

The three groups - if they could be called that - went on separate ways, and while Finka was grateful for Wamai’s company, she wished she knew him better. The walk back to that section of the ship was deadly silent, both of them on high alert after the unfortunate run-in with the infected man in the generator room. 

Pistols held high, Finka went in first, crossing the plastic curtains. Her first impression was that this wasn’t a makeshift quarantine area, it was a research lab. One that had been trashed, since the expensive equipment was strewn around without a care, broken glass crunching underfoot. Wamai looked around with a frown.

“Blood on the waves is always a sign of a predator lurking,” he whispered, his attention focused on the plastic covered cubicles ahead.

While there was no actual blood, as far as Finka could see, she agreed with the warning. This wanton destruction was proof some scuffle happened here, one she was willing to bet didn’t end well for the researchers. She wordlessly asked Wamai to follow her, and they warily approached the plastic covered cubicles.

Those had been used as makeshift observation rooms, since stretchers with built in restraints were present in all of them. Most were either torn or splattered with dried blood. Whoever - or whatever - had been tied up in there was long gone, thankfully. Seeing as the room was safe, Finka made a beeline for the computer on the desk. The keyboard had to be recovered from the floor and had a few keycaps missing, but that wasn’t a problem. She booted up the computer and hoped it wasn’t password protected.

“There’s more to investigate, there’s a corridor back there.” If Wamai was displeased with her choice, Finka was unable to tell. The man was so damn hard to read.

“I need-” Finka coughed, her throat still feeling like murder whenever she talked. “Info. Here.”

Wamai’s eyes flickered back to the door. “Waiting… I know how to do that. I’ll protect us.”

Finka had no qualms with that plan, and nodded, trying to avoid talking unless it was absolutely necessary. Her attention shifted back to the computer, and she set herself to the task of exploring what documents were saved there. It was an ungrateful task, trying to piece together all the bits of information she found from discarded reports, drafts of messages and official notifications. Slowly, a coherent story started to take form in Finka’s mind.

The damned US government was experimenting with the Chimera virus. It didn’t matter that Doc destroyed all samples and only preserved Dr. MakIntosh’s vaccine formula, or that Six promised she would fight to ensure the knowledge didn’t fall into the wrong hands. Somehow they got new samples, and turned this old battleship into a floating lab. As a scientist, Finka could understand wanting to study an alien virus, yet she despaired about it all the same. 

_ “I have camera access,”  _ Valkyrie’s voice came from the comms. _ “Not all of them are operative, but most are fine. Everything seems clear, I’ll keep you updated.” _

Finka acknowledged the message with a single word, too focused on making sense of the disjointed reports and information. It seemed they only experimented with rats, trying to modify how quickly the infection developed. Someone must have gotten infected too at some point. People started acting violently, attacking others without reason, or disappearing, claiming the fluorescent lights hurt their eyes, and complaining about intense headaches. When they noticed the abnormal spikes growing on people, it was too late. 

This was worrying. How did the infection transmit exactly? They never got that clear in New Mexico, they just wore heavy protection and prayed it would be enough. And according to what happened in this ship, Finka would say getting infected was extremely easy. Could be airborne, although she doubted it. If it was by contact with someone who was already infected… Finka automatically raised her hand towards her neck, remembering the attack from before. Shit.

A loud noise startled her out of her investigation. It was a gunshot, there was no mistaking it for something else. 

_ “Guys, what was that?” _ Valkyrie asked through the comms, sounding agitated.

_ “That wasn’t us,” _ Wamai answered, and even if he was waiting in the corridor and not in the room with her, he was correct that Finka wasn’t the one who fired her gun. 

_ “Buck, Pulse, do you copy?” _ Silence, vast and terrifying. This didn’t bode well, but if they were under attack there would have been more than a single shot, wouldn’t it?

“Where did they go?” Finka’s voice was raspy but understandable at least.

_ “One deck below you. I’m going.” _

Before Valkyrie finished speaking, Finka cut her off, “Stay on cameras and be our eyes. We’re closer anyway.”

The corridor was empty, and for a few seconds she wondered where the hell Wamai was. Then she saw him down the hallway, by the staircase, presumably waiting for her.

It was a short distance, yet it seemed like it took her forever to cover it, same for going one level down. Valkyrie stopped trying to contact Buck and Pulse, and was instead keeping watch on the cameras. All was clear, according to her. 

On the next level, the corridor was full of doors on both sides, so by silent agreement, Finka took the ones on the right and Wamai took the left. She opened a door and realised these were the cabins, the bunk beds a dead giveaway. Although this one was empty.

Door after door she checked, frantically, trying to find their missing teammates. Then she arrived at one door that was already open. It was a surprise to find Buck sitting on the floor, as if he was tired and decided to sit down and slump against the wall. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for the hole in his forehead and the splatter of blood and grey matter covering the wall behind him.

Finka had lost teammates before, but there was a difference between seeing them die in action and finding their corpse unexpectedly. The latter was more jarring, a horrible mistake shattering her world by surprise. Unable to tear her gaze away from the ghastly sight, she opened the comms. “Buck is dead.”

_ “What?! How?”  _ Valkyrie’s voice reached her dimly, as if she was hearing it from afar. This hadn’t been an attack by the infected. Finka was finding it hard to breathe all of sudden.

A hand on her shoulder startled her, but it was only Wamai. For once, it was really easy to read him, he was worried. Very worried. Same as Valkyrie, who kept talking, asking for answers she didn’t truly want to hear.

“He was shot,” Wamai informed her. The implication hung over them, nobody wanting to acknowledge it out loud yet. “Where is Pulse?”

_ “He’s not answering, and I don’t see him in any of the cameras.”  _

They had to regroup, splitting had been a terrible mistake. Buck was dead, for fuck’s sake. How were they going to explain this to Harry, and to poor Frost? And Jackal, oh lord, this was going to be a terrible blow to him. Finka wasn’t sure if the Canadian and Spaniard were just friends or something else, but it was clear they were close.

Finka spoke through the command, “How do we get to -” 

“What the hell is going on here?” 

Pulse was at the doorway, aiming his pistol at them, eyes wide as he took in the scene. Both Finka and Wamai were holding their guns too, looking at Pulse warily, and behind them Buck lay in a pool of his own blood. 

“We could ask the same,” Wamai pointed out, studying his reaction. On her part, Finka was still transmitting through the community, with some luck Valkyrie would hear everything too. 

“Me? I'm not the one hunched over a dead body.”

Finka bristled at the accusation. “How dare you!” 

“We heard the gunshot and came to investigate. He was long dead when we arrived.” Wamai’s explanation was calm and rational, yet he hadn't lowered his pistol not even for a second.

“Where were you?” Finka went straight for it, see how Pulse tried to blame her, them, for this. 

“How very convenient, I find you with a dead body but I am suspect?” Pulse snorted. “I picked up a heartbeat, I followed it until I heard the shot. Then I made my way back here.”

_ “Why didn't you answer the comms?”  _ Valkyrie decided to butt in. 

“I don't receive any messages. I discovered that trying to reach all of you after the gunshot, but there was only static.”

While the equipment could have been broken earlier, when he tackled the infected away from Finka, it was a little  _ too  _ convenient in her opinion. Same as the chasing a heartbeat bit. Valkyrie didn't see anything or anyone on the cameras, and aside from Finka’s assaulter, they didn't find signs of anyone else around. 

_ “Jack, you have to admit your whole story is… kinda suspicious,” _ Valkyrie said, and Finka couldn't agree more. 

“I think you might be infected,” Finka explained. “We'll quarantine you in a room until -” 

“You're not locking me in a room,” Pulse took a step back, eyeing them as if they were monsters. “And why am I the one infected? As I see it, you're the best candidate, that thing was on top of you before we intervened.”

Irritated by how Pulse kept trying to deflect by blaming her, Finka was about to disregard how her throat hurt when she talked for long, and go on a tirade about how her gear was especially designed to go into infect hot areas, unlike his. Not to mention she wasn't the one acting weird. However, before she could open her mouth, Wamai beat her to it. 

“I've been with her the whole time, she is innocent.”

As all answer, Pulse aimed his gun at Wamai instead of her. He was a danger, that much was clear. However, Finka didn’t want to kill him, far from it, despite what he had done. Incapacitating or confining him would be the best option, but short of pushing him into an empty room and barring the door, she didn’t know what other options they had.

_ “Guys, I think there’s something here with me,” _ Valkyrie said through the comms, cutting their argument short.

There was no hesitation, they all ran to find her. Pulse was the first to bolt out, and Finka was surprised to see him go in the same direction as her and Wamai, ignoring them for the moment. She tried to contact Valkyrie again, but there was no answer, and Finka was dreading to find out why. 

Pulse ran faster than she and Wamai did, and despite her best efforts to keep an eye on him, he turned around the next corner and disappeared from view. However, Finka soon realised they had bigger problems than that. 

The lights on this level were almost all broken, only a few still remaining, insufficient to properly illuminate everything. One thing stood out, though: there were several rooms lining the corridor, all with the doors wide open, and plunged in darkness too. 

She tapped Wamai’s arm and wordlessly indicated her intention to go into the nearest room. He nodded in agreement, yet instead of going with her, Wamai went into another one. Well, they would cover more terrain like that. 

Making a quick swipe of the room with her flashlight, Finka would say this looked like the control room. Although all the screens and consoles were broken, smashed to pieces. What the hell happened here and where was Valkyrie? At least there were no bloodstains anywhere, which inspired her to be a little bit positive. Maybe Valkyrie escaped and was hiding somewhere.

A scratching noise came from her left, and she swiftly turned towards it. At first she couldn't find the source, but then she lowered the flashlight’s beam and saw it. It took her a moment to process what was  _ that _ , because no human usually crawled on all fours like an overgrown rat. The arms didn't end in hands, in its place a jagged stump that resembled more an ice pick than a limb. Clusters of red, unnatural spikes protruded from his back, along the spine. The worst part was how distinctively human the face was. Despite the discoloration spots on the forehead and a few tiny spikes growing on his temple, Finka could tell the infected had been a handsome young man, before… 

The light seemed to bother him, the inhuman screech he emitted was blood curdling, and Finka didn't hesitate to take her gun out. He moved at a startling speed, getting up before Finka could react, and dear lord, knees shouldn't bend like that. She shot, the noise deafening in the reduced space. Still, that didn't stop him. He lunged against her, and not even emptying the magazine on him seemed to stop him. Killing the infected wasn't easy, the more advanced the case was, the more resistant they were.

Finka stumbled backwards, narrowly avoiding his scythe-like limbs, and ran away. She needed to reload her pistol, but first she had to get the hell out of there. Hearing the sounds of something chasing her, the guttural noises coming closer and closer, was nerve wracking.

_ “He's gonna get you! He's gonna get you!” _ That was the only thought going through her mind like a broken record. 

Finka tried to go faster. Her legs felt heavy and uncooperative, and she panicked. She couldn’t afford any weakness, not now! Decided to not let her body betray her now, she pressed the little trigger in her gloves, the one that would inject a little boost. With the adrenaline running high, she felt unstoppable, faster. Diving into the nearest room, she closed the door behind her, just in time before her assailant slammed against it. 

The continued assault against the door meant she had to push against it with all her strength so it wouldn’t open, but it was better than running before that thing. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, and the solid metal door acting as a barrier was a relief, even if she had to put her back against it and push to keep it closed. With shaky hands, Finka reloaded her pistol and weighed her options. She couldn’t hold the door forever. Maybe if she used the comms to call for help...

A shot rang right outside the room. And another. The pounding against the door stopped. With her own pistol in hand, ready to shoot if necessary, Finka opened the door. Her savior was none other than Valkyrie, and she had the sudden urge to hug her because a few seconds Finka had been convinced this was the end for her. 

However, Valkyrie stepped away from her, covering her eyes and hissing, “Gah, can you get that thing out of my face?”

Realising she was aiming the flashlight squarely on her friend’s face, Finka apologized and pointed it behind Valkyrie, surveying the corridor. “Where is it?”

“Ran away,” Valkyrie said. “That’s fine with me, as long as it’s not attacking us it can go wherever the fuck it wants.”

That was odd. From her experience in New Mexico, the infected were more likely to maul whoever attacked them than to run away. However, Finka was grateful it was gone and she agreed with Valkyrie, as long as they weren’t under attack it was fine. 

The sound of footsteps coming down the corridor made both of them turn around at once, aiming both the flashlight and their guns there.

“Don’t shoot, it’s me.” It was Wamai. Finka felt some of the tension leaving her body, relieved it was him.

“Where were you?” She still asked, because one moment they had been side by side, and next thing she knew, Finka was all alone and running away from the infected.

“I was locked up.” Wamai’s explanation made Finka rise her eyebrows. If he was locked, how did he get away from wherever he’d been? He shrugged. “The room was connected with another, but I ended in a different corridor.”

That would explain why it took him so long to get back here. It also meant Pulse was still on the loose and trying to isolate them, but at least now they were all together. They made their way back to the control room, at Valkyrie’s insistence, although Finka already told her everything was destroyed. The American still held hope she could salvage something, and Finka reluctantly agreed. It would be nice if they could get some intel of where Pulse or the infected were, but she doubted it would happen. Besides, Finka was sure in less than five minutes Valkyrie would agree with her assessment that it was all a pile of broken trash and it was better to keep moving.

The room was exactly as she remembered it, a trashed mess. The only difference was the dark figure hunched over one of the consoles. Something about his position didn’t feel right. Fearless, Valkyrie approached him, while Finka and Wamai illuminated the scene.

“Jack?” Valkyrie shook Pulse’s arm and got no reaction, his body still falling limp forward. It looked… no, it couldn’t be. Valkyrie looked at them, worried, and then rolled Pulse to the side. 

His face was a gorey mess, shards of broken glass sticking from his eyes, the broken nose and streams of dried blood making it difficult to recognise him at first glance. The gaping wound on his throat didn’t help, like a second smiling mouth. It was sickening.

A cold silence had taken over the group, all looking at their dead teammate in horror. Finka felt the fear grow in her chest, like a tree digging its roots deep into her. Buck and Pulse were dead. Someone was killing the team, one by one. And it wasn’t the handiwork of the infected, that was for sure.

“You killed Jack, you bastard!” Valkyrie pointed her pistol at Wamai, fury radiating off her every word.

“You’re quick to cast blame, but it could have been anyone,” Wamai was remarkably calm, yet Finka wasn’t sure if this was a point in his favor or against him. “Someone tried to lock me away, and for all we know it could have been you. Where were you?”

“Hiding at first, trying to avoid that thing! And then I went to rescue Lera while you were oh-so- _ conveniently  _ making your way back to us.”

Both looked at Finka, waiting for her to say something. And in truth, Valkyrie’s reasoning fit neatly with Finka’s thoughts. “She has a point. Maybe it was an accident, if he attacked you…?”

Wamai remained impassive, looking at her. Finka wished the lighting was better and she could see his expression more clearly. “He didn’t attack me, and I did not kill him.”

“I call bullshit on that,” Valkyrie cocked her gun.

“What are you doing? Lower the weapon. Meghan, lower the fucking-”

“You call my absence convenient, but what about yours?” Wamai interrupted Finka’s futile attempts to get Valkyrie to put her pistol away. “Wasn't your appearance conveniently timed too? The only one in the clear is her,” Wamai pointed at Finka, “you’re as suspicious to me as I am to you.”

So it was all down to her. Finka would have cursed them both to hell and back for putting her in this situation, but making tough calls was part of her job. She could do this, she just had to forget she was talking about her teammates and who of them killed their other teammates. Fuck.

Looking just at the facts, at the recent events, Finka was in agreement with Valkyrie, Wamai’s explanation was not enough for her. She looked at him in the eyes, it was the least she could do when delivering this. “We’ll tie your hands, and once we get back at the base and Doc can test everyone to see who was or not infected, we’ll sort it all out.”

All hell broke loose, both Valkyrie and Wamai unhappy with her decision, albeit for different reasons. Valkyrie was rather vocal about her absolute distrust of Wamai, weapon still in hand. “He killed Jack and could try to kill us at any moment. For all I know, he could have killed Buck too! Can you vouch for him, was he by your side all the time?”

Finka’s first instinct was to say yes, but that was not true, was it? When she’d been piecing together the information left behind, Wamai had not been with her. Sure, he was supposed to be right outside the door, yet she found him by the staircase… 

Sensing her hesitation, Valkyrie crowed, “I knew it!”

“You’re not seeing the real threat here,” Wamai warned her, then he took a step towards Valkyrie, finger raised accusingly. “And you-”

The shot made Finka literally jump in surprise. At first she wasn’t sure what happened, then Wamai crumpled like a broken doll and she dashed forward screaming his name. The bullet hit his chest squarely, blood pouring out uncontrollably. He was already dead when Finka got to him. 

“He was about to attack me,” Valkyrie whispered, and Finka stared at her blankly. That was definitely not what Finka saw. “I only... “

The Valkyrie she knew would have never killed someone she knew in cold blood, or so Finka had thought. Clearly, she didn’t know her friend well enough. Half the team was dead, and they still didn’t know for sure what happened in most of the cases. Except for this instance. 

“Have you lost your fucking mind, Meghan? He’s a teammate!” Finka exploded, disbelief and rage mingling together. This was a nightmare, it had to be. “ If this is what you do to someone you got along with, I don’t want to know what you would have done with a total stranger!”

“I only want it to stop!” Valkyrie dropped her pistol, hands clutching her own head. “Make it stop, please.”

Cold fear crystalized in Finka’s guts. “You want  _ what  _ to stop?”

“It’s like being trapped in your own head, unable to control anything,” Valkyrie explained, avoiding to look at Finka. “I don’t know why it’s weaker now, muted. But I still can feel it, ready to take control again.”

The rational, academically oriented part of Finka’s mind found this information fascinating. Never before they had insight of how the infection process really was, and it could help a lot to understand how the Chimera virus worked. But for the most part, she was horrified. Everything slotted into place. Wamai had been right, nobody knew what Valkyrie’s movements really were, she probably lied about everything. And no one had suspected her.

Still, the infection was in its early stages, Doc could give her the vaccine. It was still experimental, but the alternative was to kill her, and Finka had enough dead teammates. “C’mon, I’ll make sure you won’t run away until Doc comes. He’ll make it stop, I promise.”

A bold promise, one Finka hoped would be true, but keeping Valkyrie calm was crucial. Otherwise, this next step would be impossible. The only way to ensure Valkyrie wasn’t a threat was to incapacitate her in some way. Finka only had zip tie handcuffs, so that would have to serve.

She approached her friend like one would do with a wild animal, careful and hiding her intentions. In truth, Valkyrie’s lack of response worried her a little, but she used it to her advantage to snap the plastic cuffs in place. Still no reaction. Curious of why Valkyrie was unresponsive, when moments ago she’d been killing and lamenting about her situation, Finka pointed the flashlight at her face instead.

The eyes were an alarming red color, and the effect of being under the light was immediate. She screeched, a sound that Finka remembered from her nightmares, and lurched forward in an attempt to maul her. Thankfully, with her hands bound, she couldn’t do much harm.

Jesus, how fast did the infection progress? She was still writhing under the beam of light, but now in fury instead of pain. Seeing she couldn't break free of the handcuffs, Valkyrie tried again, this time throwing herself against Finka and trying to bite her. 

Repelling her attack wasn't difficult, but keeping her from doing it again, not so much. They grappled, Finka grabbing her by the shoulders and slamming her against the wall. Between the noise they made, and how trying to contain Valkyrie required all her attention, Finka didn’t notice something was amiss until she felt the pain in her back. 

Something cut her, slicing through the layers of her gear and nicking the skin underneath. She let go of Valkyrie, who wasted no time in slamming against her, making Finka crash to the floor. Then she saw it. The infected man from before, was there too, bumping against Valkyrie in his attempts to tear Finka to shreds.

She kicked wildly against them, scooting away and making a dash for the door, with both of her assailants hot on her heels. Finka ran, uncaring of where she was going, she just ran as fast as she could.

_ “They are gonna get you, they are gonna get you!” _ While not very helpful, Finka knew those panicked thoughts were the unavoidable truth.

The urge to grab her pistol and fight back was strong, Finka would rather face adversity head on than run, yet she was dead set on at least saving Valkyrie, getting her back to the base so she could get the vaccine. However, she had no qualms about killing the other infected. Valkyrie had her hands bound, even if she caught up with Finka, she wouldn’t be able to hurt her much. The other guy though… she still felt the sting of the cut on her back, and she had been lucky it was only a shallow cut. If he caught her, next time it would be much worse.

Grabbing her gun, Finka turned around and aimed. The first bullet missed its mark, the next two broke some of the wicked looking, red and black spikes. The rest landed squarely on the chest. The infected staggered back, and Finka allowed herself a moment of pity for the poor man. Taking into account what Valkyrie said before turning, he must be aware of what was going on, a prisoner in his own mind. Maybe he even welcomed the prospect of death, of being free. However, she hadn’t taken into account how damnably difficult to kill they were in the late stages of the infection, even when they were hurt previously.

Despite the way he was bleeding profusely, the infected jumped forward, towards Finka. A sharp, pointy spike stabbed her. It was like being hit with a pick, she imagined, only it was supposedly a limb. And it was jammed on her clavicle. The infected yanked it back violently, and Finka screamed in pain. She could feel the warm blood trickling down her chest, sticking to her clothes. 

There were still a few bullets left before she had to reload. Perhaps she could make it. The fact she most probably was infected already didn’t even cross her mind, she was only focused on surviving.

Finka pressed the trigger at the same time the infected swung its pick-like appendage down at her.

_ _ _ 

From the air, the ship looked so small, like a toy adrift in a giant bathtub. It was funny, at least in Jäger’s opinion. By his side, Doc peered down at the ship too as they got closer.

“They knew when we would arrive, right?” Doc asked, seeing as there was nobody on the ship’s deck. Usually, the team would settle the survivors in a safe area, waiting for the helicopter and Doc to arrive. But there was no one.

“ _ Ja _ , we’re running on schedule,” Jäger confirmed.

How odd. Perhaps the rescue was more difficult than anyone anticipated. He hoped that wasn’t the case, for everyone’s sake, and especially for Doc’s. It was clear as day the man was exhausted, running from one emergency to the next as if he was tireless. He couldn’t fool Jäger though, he liked to consider Doc was his friend, and he knew when the doctor was running himself ragged.

Jäger landed the helicopter on the spacious and empty deck and they waited. After five minutes, Doc tried to send a radio message, but there was no answer, just static.

“I’m going in, see what’s taking them so long. Maybe they need help,” Doc said, packing up his first aid kit. “Keep the comms open.”

Jäger nodded in agreement and swallowed the unease he felt. It would be okay, he just had to wait and be ready to fly back to the base. Simple enough. He watched Doc leave, observing his figure until he eventually disappeared too, and tried to not bite his nails as he used to do when he was nervous and bored. After what seemed like an eternity, Doc eventually contacted him. 

_ “Jäger, bring me my second medical bag, it’s urgent! I found Finka unconscious in the middle of the stairs, it looks like she’s been stabbed.” _

Damn, he knew there was something wrong as soon as he landed. In his haste to get the requested bag and requesting Doc’s instructions to know where he needed to go, Jäger didn’t notice his pistol had fallen from the holster and now lay on the pilot’s seat, forgotten.

**Author's Note:**

> You can say hi and see what I'm currently up to on [my tumblr](http://r6shippingdelivery.tumblr.com/) and on [my twitter](https://twitter.com/kikipeachywitch) !


End file.
